Collision detection is the computational problem of detecting an intersection of two or more spatial objects, commonly computer graphics objects. It has applications in various computing fields, primarily in computer graphics, computer games, computer simulations, robotics and computational physics. Collision detection is a classic problem of computational geometry. Collision detection algorithms can be divided into operating on 2D or 3D spatial objects.

In computer graphics and computational geometry, a bounding volume for a set of objects is a closed region that completely contains the union of the objects in the set. Bounding volumes are used to improve the efficiency of geometrical operations, such as by using simple regions, having simpler ways to test for overlap.